Jessica Mettler, ECP, Receives Governor General’s Gold Medal & the McGill Alumni Association Graduate Award

Jessica Mettler, recent PhD graduate in the Human Development program supervised by Dr. Nancy Heath, has been awarded the highly competitive Governor General’s Gold Medal, which is awarded to the most outstanding PhD graduate in Social Sciences & Humanities at McGill, and the McGill Alumni Association Graduate Award, which is awarded to an outstanding PhD graduate at McGill.

As education institutions struggle with increasing student mental health difficulties, they have turned to low-intensity universal approaches such as mindfulness-based programs; however, it has become increasingly clear that the use of these programs has outpaced the evidence base. Her innovative dissertation research critically investigated the previously untapped strengths, limitations, and possible obstacles to effectively teaching mindfulness to students across educational levels.